New green energy agreement launched, offering price stability for sustainable power across UK public sector

A new commercial agreement from Crown Commercial Service (CCS), entitled the Provision of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), gives central government and wider public sector organisations direct access to UK-based renewable energy and competitive long-term contracts with suppliers.

Procured under PCR 2015, the innovative agreement offers a unique combination of renewable energy sourcing, long-term fixed pricing, and UK-based supply security that has never been available at this scale. This is a significant step forward in supporting public sector organisations to meet their net-zero targets while providing wider access to the market and greater budget certainty. 

The agreement went live on 15 April 2025 and will be in place for 4 years.

What are Power Purchase Agreements?

Corporate PPAs are long-term power contracts between customers and suppliers that allow for the purchase of agreed volumes of green energy directly from renewable generators for a fixed period. Renewable generation may come from various sources, such as onshore and offshore wind turbines and solar PV farms.

John Welch, Commercial Director – Estates at Crown Commercial Service, explains:

This new agreement represents an important step forward in our commitment to supporting public sector organisations in meeting their sustainability goals while securing predictable energy costs. By enabling access to a UK-based renewable energy supply through long-term contracts, we’re helping the public sector reduce its environmental impact and contribute to the government’s net-zero ambitions.

Sustainable energy solutions with predictable, long-term pricing

Market intelligence gathered has shown the need for CCS customers to have access to greener energy with a clear, concise route to market. This new agreement gives CCS customers and the wider public sector direct access to green electricity with price certainty, protecting them from market volatility while accelerating progress towards net zero targets. 

The agreement creates significant value for the nation, providing energy security, economic efficiency, market innovation, and carbon reduction. 

For example, by focusing on UK-based renewable assets, this agreement strengthens national energy independence, reducing our reliance on imported energy. The agreement will also support the government’s mission to make Britain a clean energy superpower. Encouraging innovation in the renewable energy sector advances the UK’s commitment to reach net zero by 2050.  

As a result, customers using the new agreement will benefit from:

  • access to UK-based renewable energy assets
  • competitive rates 
  • fixed-term pricing options, allowing for more efficient budgeting and future cost estimation
  • a simplified procurement process that provides access to call-off contract terms aligned with the PPA market
  • support toward net zero targets

Find out more

To learn more about the new Provision of Power Purchase Agreement framework, please visit the agreement page or contact the Service Desk at info@gca.gov.uk or 0345 410 2222.

Changes to our agreements in March

Welcome to our monthly framework update to help you with your procurement planning. We will publish it online each month and also share it in our newsletters and on our social media channels.

The update provides a brief summary of what has been awarded, extended or expired during the previous month. It also outlines what is due to expire in the next 3 months.

You can also get an overview of all of our live frameworks in our interactive digital brochure.

Agreements awarded in March

No agreements were awarded in March.

Agreements extended in March

No agreements were extended in March.

Agreements that expired in March

Agreements due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

If you need further details about any of these agreements get in touch.

You can also find out what new procurements we are working on by exploring our upcoming agreement page.

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter why not also subscribe to receive these updates and more directly to your inbox? fill in this short form.

New workplace recycling rules in England: what suppliers need to know

The government’s ‘Simpler Recycling’ reforms were rolled out in March, introducing new requirements for businesses, local authorities, and households to ensure a more consistent approach to waste and recycling across England.

The new rules aim to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill or for incineration and promote the circular economy. The circular economy is a system where materials never become waste and nature is regenerated. In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling, and composting. These are key elements of CCS’s Sustainability strategy for helping the public sector achieve its Carbon Net Zero (CNZ) goals.

What’s changing?

From 31 March, workplaces with 10 or more employees will need to arrange for the collection of the following: 

  • dry recyclable materials – including plastic, metal, glass, and paper and card 
  • food waste  
  • residual (non-recyclable) waste

Workplaces will need to separate paper and card from the other dry recyclables unless their waste collector collects them together. They will also have the freedom to decide on the size of containers and frequency of collections based on the volume of waste they produce.   

Workplaces with fewer than 10 employees have until 31 March 2027 to arrange for the recycling of the core recyclable waste streams.   

Who is affected?

Any business or workplace premises that generate waste that is similar in nature and composition to household waste must follow these rules across their operations (including for example, staff kitchens). This includes all relevant non-domestic premises, such as: 

  • offices 
  • retail and wholesale 
  • transport and storage 
  • hospitality, such as cafes, restaurants, and hotels 
  • places of education, such as schools, colleges, and universities 
  • healthcare places, such as GP surgeries and hospitals 
  • care homes  
  • charities and those registered as charities  

This is not a complete list and there are others. If you are unsure if the rules apply to your business, you can check the legislation.  

Why is it important? 

Simplifying the approach will mean more high-quality recycled material can be sourced domestically, which can then be used by manufacturers to make new products as part of the transition to a more circular economy.  

This will reduce carbon emissions, cut environmental and societal impacts from waste disposal, and support growth of the UK reprocessing industry. 

Alongside extended producer responsibility for packaging and the deposit return scheme for drinks containers, Simpler Recycling in England is estimated to deliver greenhouse gas emissions savings equivalent to £11.8 billion and make a significant contribution towards meeting the ambition to recycle 65% of municipal waste by 2035. 

Find out more

The official Defra guidance is available on the gov.uk website.

The recycling not-for-profit business WRAP has produced a comprehensive guide. Visit the WRAP England website here.

Public sector organisations affected can find solutions to their waste recycling and other sustainability needs in CCS commercial procurement agreements. Find a carbon net zero solution with our new Sustainable Solutions Finder tool on the CCS website.

 

What suppliers need to know about Technical Ability Certificates (TAC)

In this article, Lucy McCormack, Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) SME Champion, provides guidance on Technical Ability Certificates (TACs) and explains how small and medium-sized enterprises can successfully complete the certification process to work with the public sector.

Setting SMEs up for commercial success

CCS supports SMEs to understand and navigate public sector procurement requirements, helping them achieve commercial success while recognising the challenges they face in this process.

One aspect of public sector procurement that is necessary for SMEs to understand is the assessment of ‘conditions of participation’, which a supplier must satisfy in order to be awarded a public contract.

Conditions of participation must be a proportionate means of ensuring suppliers have the technical, legal and financial capacity to perform the contract. Typically, CCS assesses suppliers’ technical ability through the use of Technical Ability Certificates (TACs)* (Previously known as Certificates of Technical and Professional Ability under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015).

Under the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities must have regard to barriers that may exist for SMEs and consider if they can be removed, TACs help achieve this by simplifying and streamlining the approach to technical ability assessment to make participation more accessible. 

What are Technical Ability Certificates and why does CCS use them in the procurement process?

Technical Ability Certificates are one part of the Procurement Specific Questionnaire (PSQ) which will fulfil a similar role to the Standard Selection Questionnaire used under PCR 2015. PSQs ensure Contracting Authorities receive the necessary supplier information regarding conditions of participation, as well as exclusion and debarment information. TACs are backwards looking, considering the experience bidders have of delivering services within the scope of the contract or Lot(s) they are bidding for. 

To reduce risk, it is important that only suppliers with the necessary technical ability, as demonstrated by past performance in the delivery of contracts, are selected to bid for contracts. By verifying technical ability upfront, procurement teams can minimise the chance of selecting a supplier who lacks the necessary expertise to deliver the required quality.

As part of the PSQ, for most procurements, CCS requests that bidders complete and upload one or more TACs. The scope of the services and criteria that must be met is clearly detailed within section A of each certificate. Occasionally, a procurement may not require TACs, if CCS decides not to use them.

The purpose of a TAC is to help CCS assess potential suppliers’ suitability for contract requirements.  TACs are used to confirm suppliers have completed certain work, and met certain requirements, to the satisfaction of the buyer. This gives confidence in their ability. 

How has CCS made completing Technical Ability Certificates easier for SMEs?

The completion of TACs is streamlined to make it easier for SMEs to participate in government procurement opportunities. Recognising that smaller organisations often lack resource compared to larger organisations, the process is designed to reduce complexity and administrative burden.

For example, rather than providing extensive contract details, bidders typically only need to review Section A of the TAC and confirm their service delivery through a simple tick-box approach. To further ease the process, bidders can often reuse the same customer contract example, depending on the unique needs of the agreement, across different Lots when bidding for multiple opportunities. This helps SMEs who are bidding for multiple lots as they won’t need to find additional contract examples, requiring additional customer signatures.

The scope for acceptable contract evidence is broad. Bidders can often submit examples from public, private, or third sector work. The timeframe for contract examples is also often flexible, typically allowing evidence from contracts delivered within 3 years prior to the tender notice publication. It is sometimes acceptable for the project to have commenced earlier than 3 years prior to the publication of the contract notice, particularly if this would restrict competitions.

Additionally, organisations can sometimes use a contract that they are currently delivering that has been running for at least 6 months.

Further flexibility has been introduced by sometimes accepting contract examples where the bidder served in various capacities – as a prime contractor, key subcontractor, or consortium member. 

What are the steps SMEs need to take to complete the certification process

To complete the Technical Ability Certificate,  suppliers must complete Section A, providing contract details such as customer name, contract title, contract start and end date and tick a box to confirm that they have provided the full scope of service elements detailed in the TAC to the customer. This is followed by customer verifying that the information provided is true and accurate, by completing and signing Section B of the Technical Ability Certificate.

Finally, each TAC undergoes a compliance check against procurement questionnaire requirements, leading to either a PASS/FAIL mark as outlined in the Marking Scheme.

SME tips for TAC success

Incomplete or unverifiable submissions are the most common causes of disqualification. To help you succeed with your TAC submissions, here are 5 top tips:

  1. read the instructions in the procurement specific questionnaire and the TAC itself carefully to understand what you need to complete and by when.
  2. make sure you complete all of the information requested in the TAC and tick the box to confirm you have provided the full scope of the Services detailed in Section A. Each agreement has unique needs. Ensure your chosen contract example aligns with the specific deliverables required by the lot you’re bidding for
  3. choose a customer that is prepared to verify the information you have provided within a reasonable timespan and be contactable in the event that clarification is required
  4. if subcontractors and/or consortia delivered part of the contract being evidenced, bidders must tell CCS who they were and describe the function that each such other entity performed under the contract
  5. if you are relying on the capacity of another entity e.g. a proposed key-subcontractor to demonstrate technical ability, then they should be named as the supplier

Find out more

For further support on TACs for any CCS procurement, please email info@crowncommercial.gov.uk and entitle your query “TAC query for [name of procurement]. If you require further information when bidding on a CCS procurement please follow the instructions for clarification questions in the published Bid Pack.

To learn more about how CCS is levelling the playing field for suppliers of all sizes, download our digital brochure.

We always welcome feedback, suggestions or queries. These can be submitted to smefeedback@crowncommercial.gov.uk

*Please note that suppliers must refer to the bid pack for the procurement they are bidding for, as the rules set out in the bid pack will take precedence over this guidance.  

How CCS is supporting SME involvement in public sector AI procurement

Earlier this year, the Government announced its decision to take forward all recommendations set out in the independent report ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan’, commissioned by Peter Kyle MP, Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

The purpose of the plan is to ‘ramp up’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption across the UK in order to boost economic growth, provide jobs for the future and improve people’s everyday lives. The recommendations, it is hoped, will encourage the responsible adoption of AI across all sectors of the UK economy, with the public sector leading the way. 

Benefits of AI for the public sector

The use of AI within the public sector offers significant benefits through cutting administrative costs, speeding up processes and achieving more efficient services for citizens. The government has already identified the potential for large-scale productivity gains from the adoption of AI across the sector. It has already launched a new package of AI tools – nicknamed ‘Humphrey’ – available to civil servants in an effort to modernise tech and achieve better public services.

AI is already transforming public services by automating repetitive tasks and increasing efficiency across sectors. For example, in education AI helps teachers reduce time spent on lesson planning and marking. Healthcare professionals benefit from AI-assisted report drafting and medical diagnostics, with the Department for Health and Social Care specifically deploying AI for faster lung cancer detection through chest X-rays and CT scans. Police forces are responsibly implementing automated threat and anomaly detection systems. These AI applications are significantly reducing workload for public sector employees while improving service provision across education, healthcare, and law enforcement.

Despite the clear benefits however, there are many challenges to implementing AI solutions effectively across the public sector. These include concerns about data privacy and security, limited technical expertise, budget limitations, and a general hesitation to embrace new technologies that could potentially raise ethical issues, especially when dealing with sensitive citizen data. 

Why SMEs are critical in AI adoption within the public sector 

SMEs make up an essential component of the private sector business landscape. According to the 2022 Business Population Estimates there were almost 5.5 million businesses in the UK at the start of 2022. SMEs accounted for 99.9% of the total number. Importantly SMEs employed 61% of the private sector workforce which was 16.4 million employees. They also earned 51% of the turnover in the UK private sector. Put simply, SMEs are the backbone of any healthy economy: they drive growth, provide employment opportunities and open new markets.

SMEs are critical in AI adoption within the public sector.  Whether acting as a bridge between large-scale AI development and the specific needs of local communities or offering niche and specialist services to Government departments, their role is crucial. They can often provide tailored solutions and have specialist skills or products that are more cost-effective, agile and responsive to diverse government departmental and public sector challenges. 

SMEs can offer several advantages when providing AI solutions for the public sector, depending on the specific SME and their understanding of AI ethics and implementation practices. For example, they can often provide a more personalised level of customer support, crucial for public sector organisations with limited technical expertise and for building trust and understanding. SMEs are often considered to be better at innovation than larger corporations due to their agility, faster decision-making processes, and a greater willingness to take risks, allowing them to quickly adapt to changing public sector requirements, which is ideal for tighter timescales.

Other advantages can include:

  • having specialised expertise and knowledge that enables development of targeted applications in areas like healthcare and education
  • ability to provide more cost-effective solutions and take on smaller projects, because of their leaner structures and lower overhead costs
  • willingness to more actively engage with and contribute to the local community around them, matching local needs and achieving social value benefits
  • their business model typically involves managing smaller data sets, potentially reducing privacy concerns compared to larger companies

Barriers to public sector procurement for SMEs 

Despite the many benefits SMEs offer to public sector contractors, historically SMEs have faced a range of barriers in accessing public sector procurement opportunities. 

These barriers include but are not limited to: 

  • contracting authorities being unaware of SMEs and the types of goods and services they can potentially provide
  • SMEs viewing the procurement process, often rightly, as overly bureaucratic
  • SMEs not having the capacity or resource to bid for opportunities and compete with large businesses, for example no dedicated bid teams
  • the procurement process often assigning a higher weighting to cost, therefore lessening the ability of SMEs to demonstrate their wider value

As part of the recent change to procurement regulation following the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities now have a duty to consider the barriers facing SMEs and how to mitigate and remove these, wherever possible, with the aim of opening up procurement to SMEs and social enterprises.

How CCS is supporting SME involvement in public sector AI procurement

SMEs have always been a key component of the commercial agreements we create. This has been driven in part by the Government’s aspirations to increase spending with SMEs. CCS also recognises that SMEs bring greater diversity to supply chains and, more broadly, the economy, when successful in winning business.

One of the ways we aim to support SMEs is through our Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPSs), which offer the ability for suppliers to self-certify making joining quick and simple at any point through the life of the DPS and reducing procurement times. For example, a simple procurement can be initiated in just 10 days, significantly shorter than more traditional procurements which can often take months. In addition, there is no limit to the number of suppliers that can join the DPS as long as they meet the selection criteria and accept the terms and conditions of the DPS, offering buyers unrestricted access to smaller suppliers. All DPS tenders are competitive and each appropriate supplier has a chance of winning.

AI solutions for the UK public sector

Specifically, our AI DPS offers all public sector organisations, including local authorities, the health sector, Bluelight, Culture Sport & Travel and charities a range of commercial solutions provided by suppliers of all sizes to support with realising the opportunities and reducing the risks presented by data analytics & AI. 

All suppliers on the agreement need to identify ethical considerations in relation to data limitations, fairness and bias. They need to demonstrate how the skills, qualifications and diversity of teams developing and deploying AI have been considered, and ensure the outputs of the AI technology are transparent and explainable to a non-expert audience. They also need to be able to describe how data will be protected and set out the level of human decision-making at critical points.

The DPS includes a set of capability filters which have recently been updated to connect buyers and suppliers together easily and to make it easier for customers to find the right solution to ensure better efficiencies in their organisations. Having additional filters allows SMEs to specify their capabilities more closely and buyers to filter the supplier list view with additional ease, to make it easier for them to find the right supplier. This saves time and creates value throughout the Public Sector. CCS experts are readily available to ensure the experience of using the AI DPS is as easy and smooth as possible.

SME spend through the AI DPS equates to over 50% of total spend through the DPS and is growing year on year.

Book your place on our AI and SME Opportunities in the Public Sector – (Virtual) Event

CCS is committed to supporting SMEs in accessing public sector AI procurement opportunities. To help businesses navigate the landscape, we are hosting a series of 3 webinars designed to provide insights, guidance and practical steps for SMEs looking to engage with public sector AI projects.

The sessions will cover key topics such as the role of SMEs in public sector procurement, an introduction to the AI Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), the Government’s AI Strategy, and success stories from SMEs already working in the sector. These webinars will provide valuable information on how to register on the AI DPS and bid to be awarded a place on a future framework. There will also be the opportunity for attendees to ask questions and share insights into the challenges they face.

These webinars will take place on the following dates:

  • April 22nd – 14:00 – 15:30
  • May 21st – 13:00 – 14:30

All sessions will be held virtually, SMEs can register their interest and sign up on GoToWebinar

Find out more 

The new AI Playbook for Government, supported and co-authored by CCS, offers guidance on using AI safely, effectively and securely for civil servants and people working in government organisations.

For more information download our guide to Artificial Intelligence (AI) for buyers. 

Changes to our agreements in February

Welcome to our monthly framework update to help you with your procurement planning. We will publish it online each month and also share it in our newsletters and on our social media channels.

The update provides a brief summary of what has been awarded, extended or expired during the previous month. It also outlines what is due to expire in the next 3 months.

You can also get an overview of all of our live frameworks in our interactive digital brochure.

Agreements awarded in February

Agreements extended in February

Agreements that expired in February

No agreements expired in February.

Agreements due to expire in the next 3 months

Further information

If you need further details about any of these agreements get in touch.

You can also find out what new procurements we are working on by exploring our upcoming agreement page.

If you don’t currently receive our monthly customer newsletter why not also subscribe to receive these updates and more directly to your inbox? fill in this short form.

CCS to showcase digital innovation at DigiGov Expo 2025

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) will host a dedicated pavilion at this year’s DigiGov Expo, the UK’s largest public sector technology event, taking place at ExCeL London on 24-25 September 2025.

The new CCS Pavilion will bring together technology suppliers and public sector buyers, creating opportunities to explore innovative solutions that can transform public services. With the Procurement Act 2023 now in effect, the pavilion will serve as a vital hub for understanding how to maximise value in technology procurement.

DigiGov Expo will bring together over 3,000 digital, data, and technology experts from Central Government departments, local authorities, and the wider public sector, to explore the latest innovations from tech suppliers, share best practices, and address the critical challenges and priorities for public sector digital reform.

The event will also feature an AI Theatre exploring artificial intelligence in the public sector, and a Government Village where departments can share digital transformation experiences.

Philip Orumwense, Commercial Director and Chief Technology Procurement Officer, Crown Commercial Service says: 

“I am delighted that CCS will be attending the DigiGov Expo event once again. It’s a wonderful opportunity for discovery – a chance for those who buy and supply for the public sector to share their knowledge and experience.

It further demonstrates how CCS is committed to supporting effective public sector procurement and the acceleration of modern digital government.”

Public sector representatives can register now for complimentary places, available for a limited time.For more information and to register, visit the main expo website.

Call for evaluators for our new marketplace solution

We are calling for volunteers from public sector organisations to support the evaluation of the new The Marketplace solution. This agreement will replace the current Tail Spend Solution.

Evaluators are a key part of the process to deliver the procurement on time. We are looking for volunteers across the Civil Service to evaluate bids that we will receive. This is an important role and counts towards corporate contribution.

We are looking to use the Competitive Flexible Procedure under the new procurement regulations. More information about the stages and evaluation dates will follow. It is likely that evaluation of the bids will take place between June 2025 and September 2025. CCS will provide full evaluator training and our team will be on hand to provide support throughout the process.

​If you or your colleagues would like to become an evaluator, please send an email to tailmanagement@crowncommercial.gov.uk and include the following details:

  • name
  • organisation name
  • job title
  • email address
  • dates of known leave between June – September

Supplier assurance: having confidence in your suppliers

NB: This article was originally published on 20 February 2025. All information was correct at the time of writing, but may not be fully applicable following the introduction of the Procurement Act 2023.

What is supplier assurance in procurement and why is it necessary?

Most organisations rely upon suppliers to deliver products, systems, and services. They need to be confident that the suppliers they work with are ‘fit for business’ and able to fulfil their contractual obligations because a vulnerable supply chain can cause damage and disruption to organisations. This is especially important within the public sector, where safeguarding the delivery of public services is crucial. 

Supplier assurance is the process of evaluating potential suppliers for your procurement to mitigate risk. It encompasses a range of processes and practices designed to ensure the reliability, quality, and integrity of the products and services you buy. 

Supply chain assurance offers numerous benefits to organisations including:

  • risk assessment and management: by identifying and addressing potential disruptions, companies can minimise the impact of supply chain risks on their operations
  • quality control measures: Supply chain assurance helps maintain consistent quality standards throughout the production and distribution process
  • compliance monitoring: With increasing regulatory requirements, supply chain assurance helps businesses stay compliant with relevant laws, policies and industry standards
  • enhancing reputation: A well-managed supply chain contributes to a positive brand image and customer trust

Using the example of a secondary school, operating on tight schedules that align with academic terms, any delays in the supply of educational materials or resources could disrupt teaching schedules and impact student learning experiences. Supplier assurance can help identify strong supply chains with effective logistics, quality control measures and contingency plans to ensure that materials and services are satisfactory and delivered on time.

In the case of an NHS trust undertaking a construction project such as building a new day treatment centre, a supplier might have the exact expertise that you need, however, what would happen if you discovered half way through a project that they couldn’t meet their contractual requirements and complete the building works because they are financially unstable? Supplier assurance helps organisations better understand the financial capacity of suppliers to successfully carry out a contract. It can help assess whether appropriate risk mitigations need to be and can be put in place to address any identified issues with a bidder’s financial capacity.

Supplier assurance – the challenges for the public sector

There are several challenges for public sector organisations when successfully implementing the supplier assurance process. These include but are not limited to:

  • complexity of global supply chains and corporate structure: As supply chains become increasingly global and complex, managing risks across multiple tiers of suppliers becomes more challenging.
  • maintaining supplier compliance: Staying on top of policies, procedures, technology, etc. is an ongoing process, not a one-off checkbox. It needs to be continued post-award throughout the lifetime of your contract.
  • technological integration and resource limitations: Implementing new technologies for supply chain management can be costly and time-consuming.

How does CCS assess suppliers’ suitability?

Each year CCS helps thousands of public and non-profit organisations buy goods and services from suppliers in the private sector. We design our commercial agreements to help you buy what you need when you need it. 

Our agreements have a list of pre-evaluated suppliers, but what does this mean and how does it help to eliminate risk for your procurement(s)?

In a world of many emerging risks, CCS monitors and manages supplier assurance and due diligence; to align with industry best practice and to balance supply market risks for our customers.

We understand that our supply chains support the essential services you provide, so it’s vital our customers can be confident that they will remain comprehensive and reliable. We are always in the process of taking steps to strengthen our supplier assurance, in particular by building our capacity to assess and monitor suppliers’ economic and financial standing, in line with commercial best practice.

All suppliers are contractually obliged to adhere to assurance requirements in order to be compliant with CCS agreements. The core requirements at pre-qualification stage include: 

  • appropriate insurances 
  • cyber security 
  • adherence to policy areas such as sustainability
  • financial stability 

Some category/market areas require further assurance and that is made clear in the individual terms and conditions for each specific agreement. 

CCS monitors the core requirements of suppliers throughout the life of the agreements, which can save buyers time and effort when checking the reliability of their contractual partners.

What does each stage of the CCS supplier assurance process include?

Here is how the CCS assurance process works:

Pre-qualification assurance compliance

  • insurance: certificates are checked for correct values, dates and genuine issuers for professional indemnity, product/public liability, and employer’s liability
  • financial stability: Financial assessments are carried out in accordance with playbooks to reflect the tiering of the specific lot
  • cyber security: Cyber Essentials (+) certificates are checked for correct dates and genuine issuer
  • modern slavery: selection questionnaire responses to specific questions are checked at the compliance stage post bidding to ensure that the supplier adheres to the policy as set out in the bid pack and terms and conditions
  • carbon net zero: Carbon Reduction Plans are checked by our teams against the requirements as set out in PPN 06/21 to ensure compliance
  • prompt payment: our selection questionnaire covers mandatory and discretionary exclusions including areas such as prompt payment

Post-award assurance compliance

  • insurance: certificates are monitored near expiry and suppliers contacted for updated versions. Lack of response or incorrect documentation is escalated to the Commercial Agreement Manager (CAM) for that agreement to manage, resolve or suspend.
  • financial stability: Dun and Bradstreet alerts are sent through to CAMs to review and take appropriate action. Again, the steps taken are set out in the terms of the contract, typically including requesting and reviewing the latest accounts and in the event these are not robust, requesting a guarantor or suspension from the agreement until such a time as is financially stable and viable.
  • cyber security: Cyber Essentials(+) certificates are monitored for expiry, suppliers are contacted for updated versions. Again, a lack of response or incorrect documentation is escalated to the Commercial Agreement Manager (CAM).
  • supplier relationship management: is carried out by each CCS category group for the suppliers appointed to their agreements, and this can include; measurement against agreement KPIs, timely submission of management information, performance against contracts, outputs against social value themes for example.

Buyer responsibility

Once entered into a contract, contracting authorities are expected to manage their terms and conditions, KPIs, any policy or social value obligations as written into their contract and to assure themselves that the awarded supplier is adhering to their lawful obligations.

Most of our agreements are underpinned by the Public Sector Contract which provides legal compliance and additional assurance to contracting authorities. Our commercial teams can advise on how to make the best use of this when awarding contracts.

Help and support

You can now find all of our Procurement Essentials articles in one place on our website. 

More information and guidance for public and third sector buyers, as well as full details of all of our commercial agreements, can be found in the latest CCS digital brochure.

Our latest agreement for back office software solutions, with increased opportunities for SMEs, is launched

The Back Office Software 2 [RM6285] agreement will provide a route to market for any UK public sector organisation wishing to purchase Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions for back office applications, either in the cloud, on-premise or hybrid. 

The agreement will replace the incumbent Back Office Software [RM6194] agreement, which expires in April 2025. In addition to providing access to a large range of SMEs, it is also an agreement  that allows customers to contract directly with large software vendors such as Oracle, SAP, Salesforce, and IBM to enable competition between them as well, ensuring maximum value for money.

Back office software systems significantly improve productivity by streamlining administrative tasks, automating repetitive processes, centralising data access, and enabling better decision-making through real-time insights. Through providing a wide range of flexible and innovative software solutions, the new agreement will help to enable civil servants and public sector workers to focus on more strategic work, reducing overall operational inefficiencies across departments.

97 suppliers have been awarded a place on the framework, 53% of which are SMEs. 

The framework scope was determined through a series of market engagement sessions. It will be similar to the previous iteration but will differ by featuring 2 new distinct lots: 

Lotting structure

Lot 1 Enterprise Software

Lot 2 Software specialised solutions

Lot 1 will cover the provision of software tools including accounting software, payroll systems, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions.

Lot 2 will cover the same range of products but is designed for lower-value innovative solutions to deploy back-office software, to encourage opportunity within the SME community. 

For both of the 2 lots, buyers will have the option of procuring through directly awarded contracts or further competition. Customers can also buy associated services at the same time as their software including application design, systems architecture and data migration. 

The agreement will run for an initial term of 30 months, plus optional extensions up to a further 18 months – which could be applied for both lots, or only one. An additional key change will be the removal of Call-Off contract length limits to improve flexibility for customers

Philip Orumwense, Commercial Director and Chief Technology Procurement Officer, Crown Commercial Service says: 

This new framework provides better value for the nation through the use of cost effective and more efficient back office software solutions, freeing up civil service time to focus on providing services for citizens. 

It is yet another example of how CCS is helping to improve interoperability throughout the public sector by making it easier for organisations to link different back-office computer systems and make better use of real time data whilst enabling the acceleration of modern digital government.

Find out more

To find out more about Back Office Software 2 visit the agreement webpage or contact the CCS Service Desk at info@gca.gov.uk or 0345 410 2222.

Don’t forget, you can find a full list of all the commercial agreements we offer, alongside details of how we can help you build policy considerations into your procurement, in our interactive digital brochure.